•A facilitator's guide was also launched during the event at the Kenya School of Government, Lower Kabete.
•NDMA deputy director for Drought, Contingency Planning and Response Saiyana Lembara said climate information is critical as it builds into the planning process.
The capacity of counties to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change got a major boost on Thursday after a new curriculum was launched.
Most devolved units have not been tailoring their programmes with climate resilience initiatives, a factor that has made them susceptible to the impacts of climate change.
A facilitator's guide was also launched during the event at the Kenya School of Government, Lower Kabete.
National Drought Management Authority deputy director for Drought, Contingency Planning and Response Saiyana Lembara said climate information is critical as it builds into the planning process.
“Climate change is real, we are struggling with the effects,” Lembara said.
NDMA says that 4.1 million Kenyans are in dire need of food.
Lembara cited disaster risk management, climate change and social issues as some of the global issues countries are grappling with.
He said disasters were occurring as a result of failure by man to act.
“With information, we can plan better to respond and hence the need for the new curriculum,” Lembara said.
The County Climate change fund mechanism curriculum course, offered by KSG will provide skills and bring into practice four key components of devolved climate finance which counties will use to deliver on community-led climate adaptation and mitigation projects that will build the resilience of communities.
The components are the county climate change fund, county climate change planning committees, participatory climate risk vulnerability tools and climate information services and monitoring and evaluation.
The five-day training is set to be rolled out by September.
Lembara said climate extremes were becoming more pronounced saying droughts might occur today only to be accompanied by floods the next day.
“19 out of 23 counties are experiencing droughts that is why we need to enhance adaptive capacity,” he said.
Lembara said there is a need to increase awareness at all levels to adequately address the impacts of climate change.
He said NDMA is working with counties to interrogate their County Integrated Development Plan.
CIDPs are plans prepared by all counties to guide development over five years.
Lembara said drought emergency funds have been set up with a seed capital of Sh2 billion, with 50 per cent of the funds going to adaptation capacity, 40 per cent (response) and recovery (5 per cent).
He challenged counties to set aside 2 per cent to 3 per cent of their annual development budget for investments and projects that enable communities to build resilience to the impacts of climate change.
Council of Governors senior programme officer Environment and Climate Change Committee Brian Muthoka said 42 counties have legal frameworks to support climate actions.
Muthoka said Lamu, Bungoma, Samburu, Mombasa and Nairobi do not have the frameworks in place.
He said there is a need to build the capacity for the devolved units to beat the impacts of climate change.
Muthoka lauded Makueni, Isiolo, Wajir, Garissa, Kitui and Vihiga for putting more resources to tame the impacts of climate change.
The launch of the new curriculum took place even as 45 counties prepare to receive $150 million (Sh17.39 billion) International Development Association credit that was approved by the World Bank Board on October 26, 2021.
The money will support climate resilience projects in rural areas.
Expected to be rolled out this year, the resources are supposed to be channelled through the new Financing Locally–Led Climate Action Programme.
Mombasa and Nairobi will not benefit from the cash as they are considered urban settlements.
The programme’s development objective is to deliver locally-led climate resilience actions and strengthen the county and national government's capacity to manage climate risks.
At the county level, the initiative will be implemented under the programme for results instrument, in which counties will receive their annual disbursements based on their performance against a specified results-based criterion.
Climate finance is an important enabling aspect of the ongoing efforts to curb climate change.
Further, the Paris Agreement sets a goal of mobilising $100 billion (Sh10.1 trillion) per year by 2020 to support mitigation and adaptation activities in developing countries.
The money, largely from developed countries, was to help developing ones mitigate and adapt to the impact of climate change.
Significant financial resources from the public and private sectors are also expected to be channelled towards climate action.
In 2015, Kenya submitted its nationally determined contribution to the Paris Agreement, a landmark agreement to combat climate change.
It pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 32 per cent by 2030 relative to the business-as-usual scenario.
At the time, the government estimated that Sh4,040 billion ($40 billion) would be needed by 2030 to meet its NDC target.
In 2018, these numbers were revised upwards in its National Climate Change Action plan to Sh1,848 billion ($18.3 billion) for the 2018-22 period only, equivalent to nearly Sh465 billion a year ($4.6 billion).
In December 2020 the government submitted an updated NDC further increasing the need.
The implementation cost of the updated NDC mitigation and adaptation is estimated to cost $62 billion (Sh6.710 trillion) between 2020 and 2030.
More resources are expected to come from donors.
The Landscape of Climate Finance in Kenya report is the first attempt to track the climate finance flows in the country since the Paris Agreement.
The report finds that Sh243.3 billion ($2.4 billion) flowed to climate-related investments in 2018, one-third of the finance needed annually.
This is approximately half of the financing Kenya needs annually to meet the targets set in its NDC.
Overall, public investment (from domestic and international providers) totalled Sh144.3 billion (59.4 per cent) while investment from the private sector totalled Sh98.9 billion (40.7 per cent).
To meet the climate ambitions outlined in the NDC, public and private climate finance needs to be scaled up significantly by 2030.
The continent has been pushing to have its special needs and circumstances considered during climate talks, a move the region will be pushing during the upcoming climate talks slated for Egypt in November.
Africa will also be pushing for loss and damage during the event.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris